Good News: Nova Marks 25 Years

June 13, 1990

It`s too easy to become so distracted by the noisy bombardment of bad news that we ignore the quiet voice of good news. So it is with the report that Nova University recently concluded an 18-month-long celebration of its 25th anniversary in South Florida.

Much of the news about higher education is negative: on-campus racism, faculty squabbles, student unrest, complaints about the inadequacies of a college education and athletic department scandals.

The other side of the story is about how a tiny school overcame enormous obstacles to become an important and respected accredited private university.

A quarter-century of progress after it was founded, most of that time led by President Abraham Fischler, Nova serves 10,500 students in Davie and at branch campus sites such as Dania, Plantation, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs, West Palm Beach, Miami, 24 states and two foreign countries. More than 26,000 people have earned diplomas at Nova.

The university provides a valuable private educational option to the other universities and community colleges serving South Florida.

Nova has made education a lifelong business. It serves preschoolers through high school seniors at the prestigious University School of Nova University at Davie and Coral Springs.

It offers a broad range of bachelors`, masters` and doctoral studies, in areas as diverse as law, business, education, oceanography, computer science, psychology and social science, as well as undergraduate studies. And it provides a variety o fpostgraduate education and continuing education programs.

Nova didn`t always have smooth sailing. The first university nearly foundered over lack of funding, and its financial stability was rocky for many years.

The contrast couldn`t be sharper between Nova at its worst, in 1970, when efforts to merge it into the state university system were rebuffed because of its financial losses, and at its best, today, as some educators and politicians see it as a desirable ``gem`` worthy of being added to the crown of public higher education, even though that is unlikely.

Whether Nova stays private or becomes a public university, the good news about Nova needs to be spread far and wide: Here is financially stable, growing, and academically respected private institution that offers a wide variety of quality educational experiences.